On the same day that the lead developer of Amazon's HQ2 project, JBG Smith, praised the tech giant for its "reaffirmed commitment" to the full project, Amazon announced on Friday it is pausing construction on the 3.3M SF second half of the Virginia complex, which is planned for 25,000 workers.

The move comes as Amazon ramps up what it announced in January would be the layoff of 18,000 workers, about 6% of its workforce—the largest cut announced to date in a wave of tech sector layoffs that began in H2 2022. Amazon's cuts primarily are coming from its retail and human resources divisions.

A report Friday in the New York Times called the tech giant's HQ2 pause "emblematic" of a tech sector that is slashing payrolls and downsizing office footprints—while increasingly embracing remote work and "struggling to figure out what to do with their offices as their workers continue to spend at least part of the time working from home," the Times report said.